Join WestEd experts at the 2023 AGU Conference, December 11–15.
This year’s conference theme is Wide. Open. Science. Over 25,000 attendees from over 100 countries will convene in San Francisco for AGU23. The conference will be held in person and online, with additional online content scheduled January 20–25, 2024.
American Geophysical Union (AGU) is a global community supporting more than half a million advocates and professionals in the Earth and space sciences. For more than 100 years, AGU has been opening science—opening pathways to discovery, opening greater awareness to address climate change, opening greater collaborations to lead to solutions and opening the fields and professions of science to a whole new age of justice equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging.
Check out details on WestEd’s session below, and make sure to register for the conference.
Monday, December 11, 2023
Session: A Research-to-Practice Collaboration for an Inclusive Planetary Science Curriculum in Out-of-School Time Learning
Time: 10:20 a.m–10:30 a.m. (Pacific)
Location: 205-206—South (Level 2, South, Moscone Center)
Presenters: Rasha Elsayed (WestEd), Kirsten Daehler (WestEd), Karen Lionberger (WestEd), Sean Ryan (Northern Arizona University), and Joelle LeMer (Northern Arizona University)
This session showcases the efforts of the Planetary Learning that Advances the Nexus of Engineering, Technology, and Science (PLANETS) program. Funded by NASA and focusing on all youth in grades 3–8, PLANETS focuses on three distinct learner groups—indigenous youth, emergent multilingual youth, and youth experiencing physical and/or sensory disabilities.
The presentation outlines the development of a Practical Guide and the revision of two curricular units from PLANETS that focus on Remote Sensing and Space Hazards. It will describe lessons learned from the process of translating the Practical Guide strategies to the PLANETS curricular materials and educator supports.
Session: Deepening Participation in Place-Based, Data-Rich Earth Science Teaching and Learning Through Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Sharing the PLACES Process
Time: 10:40 a.m.–10:50 a.m. (Pacific)
Location: 205-206—South (Level 2, South, Moscone Center)
Presenters: Sara Salisbury (WestEd), Kirsten Daehler (WestEd), Eliza Jacobs (Gulf of Main Research Institute), Zulema Gonzalez (Assurance Learning Academy)
The NASA-funded PLACES project—Broadening Data Fluency Through the Integration of NASA Assets and Place-Based Learning to Advance Connections, Education, and Stewardship—supports educators and youth using a co-design process. This past year, the PLACES team worked with middle and high school educators from across five states to deepen their collective understanding of place-based, data-rich teaching and learning.
This presentation will share lessons learned on complexities and benefits of co-design for greater reach and professional learning (PL) that intentionally integrates the voices, interests, and needs of our diverse communities. This session will help other groups with a mission on broadening earth science education with navigating collaboration in culturally and contextually relevant ways.
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Session: Supporting Educators’ Use of Secondary Data Sets to Enhance Place-Based, Data-Rich Earth Systems Science Teaching and Learning
Time: 9:23 a.m.–9:33 a.m. (Pacific)
Location: 203—South (Level 2, South, Moscone Center)
Presenters: Kirsten Daehler (WestEd), Leticia Perez (WestEd), Sara Salisbury (WestEd), Angela Rizzi (ADNET Systems), Frieda Reichsman (Concord Consortium)
A goal of the NASA-funded PLACES project is to promote data-rich Earth Science learning for middle and high school youth by supporting educators through professional learning that leverages integration of NASA Science Mission Directorate assets and uses place-based approaches to teaching and learning.
This session explores how educators use data with their students, how to support their data needs with resources and professional learning, and how scientists, industry partners, and educators can contribute to data-rich teaching and learning. It will also share insights from co-design work with 20 educators from across the United States, along with findings from WestEd’s nationwide assessment of more than 150 educators to learn about their experiences with data-rich, place-based teaching and learning.
Townhall: Students as Scientific Researchers: Bringing Student Research Symposia to Local Communities
Time: 1:00 p.m.–2:00 p.m. (Pacific)
Location: 2008—West (Level 2, West, Moscone Center)
Presenters: Dixon Matlock Butler (Youth Learning as Citizen Environmental Scientists), Dixon Matlock Butler (NASA on the GLOBE Program), Shannon Connor (Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History), Eleanor M. Jaffee (Insights Evaluation Group), Peggy Foletta (Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve), Matt Silberglitt (WestEd)
Building on the documented success of the GLOBE Program’s regional Student Research Symposia (SRS) for improving students’ science self-efficacy, several universities, institutions, and consortia have initiated their own local SRSs for students in nearby communities. Youth Learning as Citizen Environmental Scientists (YLACES) has partially supported several local SRSs.
In this session, the SRS evaluator along with SRS organizers will share their experiences with a focus on the student research processes, presentations, and feedback by and engagement with scientists in attendance. Presentations will address the student and teacher experiences, replicability, and lessons learned.
Friday, December 15, 2023
Session: GLOBE Youth Geoscientists Internship: Evidence of Effectiveness
Time: 8:30 a.m.–12:50 p.m. (Pacific)
Location: Poster Hall A-C—South (Exhibition Level, South, Moscone Center)
Presenter: Svetlana Darche (WestEd), Cathy Ringstaff (WestEd)
The purpose of the GLOBE Youth Geoscientists (GYG) project was to produce an innovative model for informal STEM education that can support transitions for high school students who are underrepresented in the sciences to postsecondary education and careers in the geosciences. The internship program combined NASA’s GLOBE program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment), college preparation, career development experiences, and youth development and leadership strategies to build a replicable summer geosciences experience for rising seniors in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Final evaluation results showed student gains in interest, skill, and agency. The model holds promise for replicability.
Thursday, January 24, 2024
Session: Supporting Student STEM Identity in the GLOBE Mission EARTH Program
Time: 10:00 a.m.–11:30 a.m. (Pacific) / 1:00 p.m.–2:30 p.m. (Eastern)
Location: Online
Presenters: Nektaria Eleni Adaktylou (West Virginia University), Jonathan Boxerman (WestEd), Kevin Czajkowski (University of Toledo), Svetlana Darche (WestEd), Sara Feit (Boston University), Peter Garik (Boston University), Leaka Newsome (Tennessee State University), David Padgett, Janet Struble, Jessica Taylor (NASA Langley), Mary Ann Wojton (Epiphany Community Services)
GLOBE Mission EARTH (GME) is a NASA-funded program that brings together scientists, science educators, and subject matter experts to engage K–16 educators and students underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education and careers with GLOBE and other NASA resources and field-based learning experiences.
STEM identity is recognized as an important factor that can affect students’ academic and career choices. This poster presents efforts within GME to assess students’ perceived overlap between the image they have of themselves and the image they have of STEM professionals, using the single-item STEM Professional Identity Overlap measure (STEM-PIO-1). Our data indicates that acting like a scientist and learning about role models who have made contributions to STEM can inspire students and make them feel more connected to the field.
Learn more about WestEd’s work in Science and Engineering and Mathematics Education.